With a roar of approval from prince william england’s lionesses honoured as virginia mckenna is made a dame

The last time the Prince of Wales met footballers Beth Mead and Lucy Bronze was on the pitch at Wembley after England’s Lionesses had won the 2022 European Women’s Championship final. The trio were reunited last week, when Prince William presented the two winners with MBEs during an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle.

The sporting pair swapped their football kits for jackets and high heels for the occasion, which appeared to surprise the royal. “The first thing Prince William said was: ‘Oh, I’m not used to seeing you dress differently,’ because he came to a lot of the things before the Euros and he has come to see us before in training,” Lucy said. “I made sure I did my hair for my nan.”

And Beth, who won the most recent BBC Sports Personality of the Year award and claimed the Golden Boot prize for top goal-scorer at last summer’s tournament, said she and Lucy were representing the entire Lionesses team.

“We would love the full team to have got this honour, but we’re flying the flag for the England team and the women’s game,” she said. “We want to do the best we can to get women’s football to the next level, and it’s exciting seeing the difference from when I started out at Arsenal six years ago to where the game is now. We want the next generation to be even better.

“Although the Euros took us by storm, it was brewing for a long time before then.”

FOUR-LEGGED AND FAMOUS

Lucy also spoke about how much her life has changed since winning the tournament last July. “T